Slightly Faster

Riding while crashing into bumps
The wheels absorb hits
while the bum puckers

Traveling alone
a single mind on two wheels is allowed to wander alone
Barely piloting the terrain
lays a pathway for carelessly exploring the brain

Purple frame with yellow rims flash by
recognized from past roadways
Pedaling while steeped in dream

the road enables explorations of inclinations
toward a better state
Bicycles pedal forward
propelling lives ahead too

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- artwork by Richard Artschwager - 
- mailed to New York - 

Tone

Curving perfectly around bones and veins and vessels and things
it grows, self-heals, and is resilient
keeps innards dry, yet gets wet happily
skin

So soft at youth, so telling with age
it has color - color that in some minds separate
while others rejoice from the variety and beauty
skin

People are covered by it
a joy to touch when love is involved
bless those doctors who must touch to heal, even when decrepit
skin

Defies full understanding
in millennia colors adjust as needed - for climate
this age, hues preposterously and shamefully build barriers
skin

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- artwork by Francis Bacon - 
- mailed to New Jersey - 

Darkness Seen Through Light

Woman leaves her home.
Waits on a sidewalk
for a ride to arrive.
She is blind.

Am I blind,
conjuring mystical scenarios that never occur.
Not listening. Listening too intently. Helping when not asked.
Call me blind I suppose, for those.

But not like the woman, real blind.
Note her deliberate routine
weekly, daily, decidedly.
I see her dark vision through my lit vision.

Wonder why my blindness envelops me.
Issues appear obvious once I see the understanding;
breaking my back to understand.
When I see, the woman, it encourages vision.

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- artwork by Christopher Payne - 
- mailed to Maryland - 

Flow

Money carves a blurry path, muscling through rivers of unknowns - 
Illuminate that. Bury this. Ignore those. Amplify what..
Cunning money, 
with all its coldness,
performs chores without breathing.
Disingenuous, hmmm, but accepted as currency.

That river's current pokes slippery hands into the invisible air,
offering free money, selling freedom.
The current has deliberate, diabolical intent.
But another currency exists. An emotional one.
Debilitating and exhilarating when allowed to flow -
emotional currency. Spend it. Save it. Let it move everything.

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- artwork by Bridget Riley - 
- mailed to Pennsylvania -